The 18th Space Defense Squadron (18 SDS) is a U.S. Space Force unit under Space Delta 2, located at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. It is the U.S. Space Force's premier Space Domain Awareness squadron. The 18 SDS executes command and control of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN), maintaining a database of resident space objects (RSOs) and sharing space situational awareness (SSA) data with various entities, including governmental, commercial, and academic partners. The squadron's functions include launch detection and tracking, collision avoidance, human spaceflight support, reentry assessment, and management of the space object catalog, tracking over 47,000 man-made objects.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
The U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron projected on 2021-03-30 that OneWeb-0178 and Starlink-1546 would come within about 60 m of each other with a 1.3% chance of collision on 2021-04-03 based on initial estimates.
The 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base will attempt to track as many as 143 commercial and government satellites deployed by Transporter-1.
The Space C2 program plans to deliver by 2022 an artificial-intelligence–powered system for the 18th Space Control Squadron to process space surveillance data in real time.
Under the new process the 18th Space Control Squadron will issue fewer but higher-quality conjunction reports to improve spaceflight safety by reducing unnecessary reports.
The 18th Space Control Squadron at Vandenberg Air Force Base is providing more meaningful data on approximately 25,000 space objects tracked by the U.S. military.
The 18th Space Control Squadron repurposed existing software rather than purchasing new software or performing major upgrades to implement the expanded conjunction screening.
On 2020-07-02, the U.S. Air Force’s 18th Space Control Squadron issued a warning to the University of Wuerzburg of a 2020-07-05 conjunction between UWE-4 and a retired Iridium satellite.
The 20th Space Control Squadron provides data to the 18th Space Control Squadron located at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California.
T.S. Kelso, senior research astrodynamicist at Analytical Graphics Inc., observed that orbital data for Cosmos-2542 is available from the U.S. Space Force 18th Space Control Squadron while comparable orbital data for USA 245 is not publicly provided by the U.S. government and is being supplied by amateur observers.
ESA's conjunction assessment team noticed the potential close approach about five days in advance using data from the U.S. Air Force's 18th Space Control Squadron.
Data released by the U.S. military’s 18th Space Control Squadron on 2019-04-05 listed at least 45 objects with apogees about the International Space Station’s orbit.
On 2019-03-29 the 18th Space Control Squadron reported it was actively tracking more than 250 pieces of debris associated with the 2019-03-27 test.